Catholic store delivers owners little miracles

September 27, 2006 - A week before her store opened in January,
Susan Dowler began to get cold feet.

"You never know if you're doing the right thing, opening a small
business," she said. "It's a big risk."

But while stocking shelves at her Catholic gift shop in Oro
Valley, that all changed. She spotted two women on the ground
outside her front door.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, they're hurt! She fell! A lawsuit before
I even open,'" Dowler recalled, "But when I rushed outside to see
what was wrong, the women were kneeling on the ground praying and
crying."

Rosaries in hand, the gushing women told Dowler they prayed for
years for her to come open this store.

Owning her first business is stressful and challenging, but from
that day forward Dowler and her husband Greg said they knew they
were doing the right thing.

The woman went about the store, bought her things and left. But
a few hours later, Dowler said the old woman's husband called. He
asked if his wife left her canes, and Dowler glanced at the table,
where they were leaning.

"Well, did you help her to her car?" the man asked. "She can't
walk without her canes."

"It's moments like that that make working here so special,"
Dowler said.

Greg Dowler recalled another time when a couple, redecorating
their home, came to buy a large, $300 wood-carved crucifix. A
priest was in the store, special ordering a book behind the
counter, when the couple questioned him about getting the piece
down from the wall.

Joking with the couple, he told them not to buy it. He was
saving his pennies for the day he could afford it. Fairly intent on
going home with the item, the couple laughed with the priest, but
continued to make the purchase, Greg Dowler said.

"After they bought, they said, 'Oh, but father, would you bless
it for us?' The priest did, and just as the couple turned to walk
away, they stopped and handed it right back over to the
priest."

Susan Dowler said sometimes she feels like she was put on Earth
to run her store. She's always being educated, she explained,
witnessing random acts of kindness that teach her to be a better
person.

"People will come in and be touched by some one thing they see,"
Susan Dowler said. "They cry. And it's not a sad thing, it's just
emotional. It's really a joy. I'm very much at peace."

For now, the Dowler's are gearing up for their busy season. This
will be there first Christmas since opening the store, and they're
expecting it to be a big one. There's a "help wanted" posted on the
front door.

"Life's going to get real busy," they said. "We're doing God's
work in November and December."